


day 16: save the world or end it

by halfwheeze



Series: thirty ways to wreck a train [16]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Superhero and Supervillain au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 07:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14100264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: in which shane and ryan are shane and ryan before heroes and villains are a part of anything at all.





	day 16: save the world or end it

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is day sixteen of a 30-day series I'm trying out! I can't say that I'll be fantastic at it, but I'm gonna try!
> 
> day sixteen is superpowers day! hope you enjoy!

Of course they know each other’s identities - they’re best friends outside of the leather catsuits and evil lairs and bullshit. Outside of all of the save the world or end it nonsense, they’re just Ryan and Shane and all they have is love for each other and the will they/won’t they that their coworkers try to guess at because they don’t know about the other thing and Shane just wants it to be over. He wants to kiss Ryan and he wants Ryan to kiss him and he knows that Ryan wants it too, but Ryan is so inside of his own head about all of the bullshit that the two of them fight about for Shane to help him back out, and he’s just so tired. He wants them to go back to who they were before the capes and the fake as fuck secrecy and the thinly veiled pining and sadness. He wants to go home to Illinois and forget Ryan’s name. He wants to take Ryan’s name. 

“You’re not even going to fight it?” Ryan asks, and Shane knows that the costumes are on and that he should be separating this villain from his best friend, but he can’t. He can’t dehumanize  _ Ryan, _ who’s held him when he felt like absolute shit,  _ Ryan, _ who helped him move into his new apartment,  _ Ryan,  _ who has been his work partner for three years, he can’t take Ryan away from Ryan. There’s still the sound of his voice, the trembling of his hands, and Shane doesn’t love this country enough for this either; that’s Ryan’s thing. No one does anything to help youth of color along and Ryan is tired of everything that keeps people like him down and Shane  _ gets  _ that, he just can’t fuck with the methodology. Of all the powers to end up with, in all of the world, his best friend happened to get fire and flight and a chip on his shoulder and a head full of plans. 

“You gonna hurt me, Ry?” Shane asks in return, relaxing into the hold of the ropes that Ryan set up to trap him. Ryan seems to deflate, looking at Shane earnestly through the shittiest mask of all time - that quote from the shitty Green Lantern movie, the Ryan Reynolds one, where she says  _ You think I don’t recognise you because I can’t see your cheekbones?  _ comes to mind. Ryan looks at him and he’s all sad eyes and shoulders down and looking like Shane kicked his puppy by insinuating that Ryan would even think of hurting him, which Shane knows he wouldn’t. 

“You know I won’t, Shay. I’ve just… I have to do this. They won’t learn any other way. They’ll never learn,” Ryan trails off, voice breaking, and Shane wants to reach out. He only became a hero because he knew who Ryan was, not because of any bullshit “save my city” instinct from any comic book about the population of powered individuals (none of which were anything like any powered Shane had ever met) that Shane had ever read. He became a hero because his best friend was a villain, and if Shane didn’t take up the mantle, someone else would, and someone else wouldn’t know that Ryan Bergara takes pretty pictures and loves with his whole heart and loves his mom’s dogs and whispers and tiptoes when people are sleeping, and they wouldn’t care. He fought Ryan to protect him. 

“Nobody ever learns, Ryan. All you’re teaching them is fear,” Shane replies, an old speech that he’s practiced a thousand times in the mirror bubbling up in his throat, spilling onto the cold grey pavement of the lair that he’s not sure how Ryan is paying for. You know, Shane’s own powers aren’t even conducive to an even vaguely violent environment; he’s an illusionist who’s good with plants, nothing more, and he knows that Ryan knows that. He knows that Ryan takes it easy on him and tries to keep him safe just as much as Shane does the same for Ryan, and Ry basically closes up villainy shop as soon as Shane gets to the scene, or just ties him up like he’s doing now. He wonders what Ryan is doing now.

“They have to learn. I’ll make them learn,” Ryan insists, and he’s typing something into the giant computer that Shane also doesn’t know how Ryan affords, but Shane supposes he might have been saving up for the supervillain venture for a while. The idea that all of this is premeditated makes him feel slightly sick, but somehow the idea of Ryan’s old anger is more comforting than all of this being explosive, new anger. New anger makes mistakes while old angers covers them up, leaves no tracks behind, gives Ryan some protection. Protection. He needs more protection. 

“I started being a hero to protect you. Maybe it’s time to start protecting you in another way,” Shane says, quiet enough that he’s not sure Ryan hears him until he notices his friend has stopped typing. Ryan looks up and stares at him, some strange mix of both trusting and suspicious, of hopeful and doubtful. “I don’t care about anyone besides friends we share, and I know you’ll protect them. You’re what I care about. You’re why I stay half the time, Ryan, you know that. All I want is for you to be safe. You scare me so much this time,” Shane rambles, and something in Ryan’s face gives. 

“You’re not trying to trick me?” Ryan asks, and Shane looks at him, head tilted, and uses the hands he’s already gotten free without Ryan’s notice to take off his mask, a full face mask because he’s a little less of an idiot than Ryan. Ryan looks so open right now, so hopeful, and Shane walks across the room, and holds his face, because if he’s gonna fuck up their friendship, he might as well  _ fuck up their friendship. _

“You’re what I care about,” Shane says, and he leans down, and he kisses Ryan, soft and sweet and just the barest edge of desperate. He’s relieved when Ryan kisses him back, pushing him back a little so he can stand up and pull Shane closer, until they’re so close Shane can hardly stand it. 

“I care about you too,” Ryan replies once they’ve pulled apart, his forehead against Shane’s shoulder. Shane notices that Ryan doesn’t put him above everything else, but he already knew that. 

“I know.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me a prompt @halfwheeze on tumblr, and I'll get to it when I can!


End file.
